Chapter 1:
This book is of a series of interviews Francois Truffaut had with Alrfred Hitchcock. We learn that Hitchcock was born in London in 1899, and that he had a very strict father who even went as far as to send him to the police station when he was a little boy to teach him a lesson. I thought it was funny that Truffaut remarked that Hitchcock was an average student. When he was younger, he wanted to be an engineer, but then he became interested in drawing and filmmaking. He was twenty-three when he made his first picture. Also, Hitchcock tells us about how much of a disaster it was, and it made me feel better about my own projects…
Chapter 2:
Hitchcock talks about his first successful film, The Lodger. It was the first true Hitchcock movie, he says. He talks about how he presented this narrative very visually, and this was his first time doing so in a movie. Hitchcock prefers to use not a lot of special effects. He used to use them more in his earlier movies. He brings up that he uses handcuffs in a lot of his films. The two go on to talk about a few of his other films, including The Farmer’s Wife, The Ring, and Champagne. Towards the end of the chapter, the two talk about how the introduction of sound to the filmmaking world changed the game completely. Before, filmmakers had perfected the silent movies, but sound jeopardized all that. At that point, Hitchcock said, people were so focused on sound and less so on cinematography, since they were just learning how to use it.
Chapter 3:
In this chapter, Hitchcock talks about his first sound film, Blackmail. He talks about the process of creating a sound film, and how different it is from silent ones. They go on to talk about European directors and that they brought something different to American cinema than Hollywood directors filmmakers were capable of doing. They essentially offer a different perspective, of course, and a more critical look at America. They also talk about suspense and the purpose of it (Hitchcock is the king of suspense).
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